What? In no universe is that true. Unless you meant 2nd-line center instead of 2nd round pick, like in the Byram trade. No contending team, no matter how stupid would trade a #3 Dman for a mere 2nd rounder. The Isles traded Leddy because he was an overpaid liability whose only use was rendered obsolete with the arrival of Dobson. Detroit essentially paid them to accept a cap dump.
That's the description if you don't understand value in a cap league. What actually happened is that Yzerman traded a 2nd (and a much smaller cap dump) for a bad contract, then turned eating half of that bad contract and taking on an additional bad contract (Sundqvist's) into a 2nd and a bottom-pairing Dman, who turned out to be pretty decent.
And again, I don't deny Yzerman admirably corrected his mistake. I've already said that trade was probably his best as Red Wings manager. My contention is that the original trade was bad, albeit minor. I'm baffled that Wings fans would fight me on this. Should I go check the WIngs board circa 2021 to see how much you all loved Leddy and his 5.5M contract?
It is not a "norm". It is what teams with cap space do to leverage said cap space, for example by turning negative assets like Leddy's contract into assets with some value. So yes, if he wanted to get something from Leddy, he "had to", because after the year Leddy had with the Wings, no team would have been stupid enough to give up assets for him at the deadline with a 5.5M pricetag attached.
Something tells me you're not a glass half full kind of guy.
Leddy is a mobile puckmoving D that had 3 straight 40 point seasons and 3 other seasons at 30+ points, and the year before Detroit picked him up he had 31 in 56 during the covid shortened season. 5.5 million for a defenseman with that kind of production is about ballpark. He was brought in to help with PP2 duties and to provide rookie Mo Seider with a veteran partner that could help him move the puck on a team devoid of puck movers.
Also, what GM trades a second pair defender for a 2nd round pick? How about Joe Sakic trading Ryan Graves for the #61 overall pick in 2021?
Nikita Zadorov was traded for a 3rd and a 5th. He plays #4 defenseman minutes.
Tanev was traded for a 2nd and a 4th due to retention.
Sean Durzi was traded for a 2nd.
Damon Severson was traded for a 3rd.
John Marino was traded for Ty Smith (bust) and a 3rd round pick.
These are just from the last two offseasons. Trade value in the offseason and trade deadline trade value are not equivalent. So yeah, second pair defensemen get moved for 2nd round picks or less.
Also why are you fixated on Yzerman eating the 2.75 mil of Leddy's cap hit (PRO RATED AT THE DEADLINE) when his contracted ended that season, and Detroit had the cap space to eat it that year?Real money Detroit probably ate a third of that. Leddy's retention didn't carry over into next year, and St. Louis needed it that season to make the trade work.